EP129: Immortal Sin
Published by SFEley on 25 Oct 2007 at 10:00 pm.
Discuss on the forums.
Filed under Podcasts, Rated R.
By Jennifer Pelland
Read by Stephen Eley.
First appeared in Tales of the Unanticipated, November 2005.
Alex stumbled from the confessional, through the church, all the way to the curb. He had to get out of there. He couldn’t sit in the house of God anymore. God didn’t want him there. That was abundantly clear. Forty-one years of perfect mass attendance. Six years as an altar boy. A childhood spent praying for his grandmother’s soul to hasten her time in Purgatory. A spotless record of weekly confessions for the past twelve years. He’d even stopped having sex with Alison two years ago after she’d gotten a tubal ligation so he wouldn’t be committing fornication. He’d followed the rules when he could, and asked for forgiveness when he couldn’t. But none of it mattered. He would die unshriven.
Unless he didn’t die.
Rated R. It’s our Halloween episode. Expect to be disturbed.
Referenced Sites:
Broad Universe
The DrabbleCast
27 Comments to ‘EP129: Immortal Sin’:
Please visit the forums to comment on this story.
sam on 26 Oct 2007 at 12:44 am: 1
Can somone explain the ending? Seemed pretty ambiguous to me.
Me on 26 Oct 2007 at 1:27 am: 2
Hi, at about 28 minutes in the narrator (’whoever’ he is ) pauses and coughs.
Good way to highlight the vulnerability of the human body. nice touch
Baus on 26 Oct 2007 at 2:24 am: 3
Another “collector’s” mis-edit edition?
Anyway, sam, about the ending… the doc’s in hell. God always wins. Boowahahah.
Me on 26 Oct 2007 at 2:27 am: 4
Now, how do I get this download onto eBay?
Baus on 26 Oct 2007 at 2:27 am: 5
Oh, wait. sam was being sarcastic.
SFEley on 26 Oct 2007 at 4:03 am: 6
Fixed. Thanks, Me, for the heads-up!
REU on 26 Oct 2007 at 7:01 pm: 7
The point he most likely died was back before the project ended. When he choked and had no repentance for what he did. ‘Cause I doubt he died in Boston.
PK on 26 Oct 2007 at 11:33 pm: 8
Maybe that isn’t Escape Pod’s lamest story ever, but it’s definitely in the bottom five.
Niels on 8 Nov 2007 at 5:10 am: 9
I like endings that are a little ambiguous, alsways forces me to revisit what I just heard/read. The story itself, high on moral, not so high on the “scary” elements, not one of my favourites though
SoulPatch76 on 10 Nov 2007 at 7:28 pm: 10
I enjoyed it. It was creepy and the main character was believable in a weird way. I think the passage of time should have been better explained and I was looking to see how he would interact with the future. The ending was somewhat abrupt, but I do get the point.
JM Inc. on 10 Nov 2007 at 8:47 pm: 11
I liked it. It clearly illustrates the fallacy of being so obsessed with mortality that you forget how good being alive can be to begin with.
On a serious note, I’d love the chance to live indefinitely with some technology like the ones in the story, if they came about during my lifetime, so I don’t agree with that jibe about the “naturalness of mortality,” which I think is probably the other big fallacy about death that most people tend to fall into.
Whether or not he‚Äôs in hell by the end is debatable, obviously I tend to think of it secularly (‚ÄúThe mind is its own place,‚Äù - John Milton, Paradise Lost) though. Still, an excellent story; very dramatic and psychological. It reminded me a bit of “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe.
SRN on 15 Nov 2007 at 3:55 pm: 12
So he’s obsessed with adhering to the letter of dogma and believes everything in the bible literally. But he’d rather rely on not-yet existing technology and build a safe house to avoid hell rather than turn himself in? What’s 20 years in jail if your reward is eternal salvation? He never in the 50 + years since his murder had second thoughts? Even, maybe the waitress didn’t deserve to die, I’ve been free for 50 years, I let my self age and die in jail but confess?
Dave (aka Nev the Deranged) on 19 Nov 2007 at 10:14 pm: 13
Hm. My comment might have been one of the ones that got deleted. Or I might have posted it somewhere else and forgotten. Anyway.
The first time I heard this story it was cut off right when the bookcase was about to fall on him. I freaked out, because I was really digging the story and I wanted to know what happened.
I finally got a complete copy and some time to listen to it… and this is the non-ending I get?
What a gyp.*
Ambiguity is one thing. Lazy writing is another. Check out EP131, Hesperia and Glory, for ambiguity done right.
(*no offense to any Gypsies in the EP audience).
Dave (aka Nev the Deranged) on 19 Nov 2007 at 10:32 pm: 14
Oh, yeah, and when I liked the story, I was gonna say “this is how Mad Scientists are born”. And I guess that’s still true.
I’m… not 100% sure what I meant by it, though. =4a7d3d609129a9296bf7ac0608c2097
Dave (aka Nev the Deranged) on 19 Nov 2007 at 10:32 pm: 15
And I have no idea what that random string of numbers is.
Lava_surfer on 21 Nov 2007 at 4:22 pm: 16
Hey, what about the “Creepy Doll” song? I was expecting to find a link in the show notes. It’s been in my head all day.
Dave (aka Nev the Deranged) on 28 Nov 2007 at 7:00 pm: 17
Lava, check youtube for several variants, including the live version and a few fan-videos.
Michael on 29 Nov 2007 at 8:38 am: 18
Lava, you can get it straight from the man himself: http://www.jonathancoulton.com/2006/07/21/thing-a-week-42-creepy-doll/ The MP3 is at the end of the post.
party poker com on 11 Jan 2008 at 8:25 am: 19
This is a great page. And the contents are really that worth reading. I will add this to my own library
terry on 24 Jan 2008 at 6:41 pm: 20
how about some true stories like the time i met the killer of o.js wife or the day i met up with ben ladin or the day i met death in the grassy noll or my wife was a cerreol killer or my husban took the bankroll and left me for dead or my girl freind leaft me for antiono bandaris and merried swartinegger. now those are stories.
Graeme on 25 Mar 2008 at 3:34 am: 21
Great story, although it is hard to believe that someone who is clever enough to do cutting edge research could also be stupid enough to be so stupid in matters of religion. To call his theology naive would be an understatement.
I am not sure any Pope would be silly enough to talk about bodies “retaining” souls, either.
On the other hand, the character was strangely believable, for all that.
SRN, the point is not that giving himself up would get him absolution for his sin, but that it would be a necessary part of repentance: if he was truly sorry for what he had done he would confess to the police. However, confessing would not, in itself, make him repentant. It is very clear that he is never repentant - he keeps blaming his victim rather than himself throughout the story.
frostsfire on 26 Mar 2008 at 10:08 pm: 22
I found this to be one of the most provoative escapepod stories i’ve herd so far, not only because of the heavy themes of Religion vs. science, but because the main character was dun to hate. i couldn’t wait for his karma to come back and smack him in the face.
scatterbrain on 1 Apr 2008 at 6:12 am: 23
Reminds me of the ReAnimater films.
Steven Smethurst on 27 Apr 2008 at 7:23 pm: 24
Really interesting, Great ending too.
Steven on 19 Jul 2008 at 12:01 pm: 25
I’ve known someone obsessed with longevity. This is a man with a phd in Chemistry, but the obsession keeps him way on the fringe of academia. This made the story exceedingly creepy for me as it sorta makes me question what other things could cause such an obsession.
Anyway, for a story like this that deals with multiple scientific procedures that will take an unknown amount of time to bring to fruition, I’m glad the time lines were vague enough that the story doesn’t unnecessarily date itself.
Jefabasia on 30 Nov 2008 at 8:25 pm: 26
Nice site thanks! simple site.
Immortal Sin by Jennifer Pelland « Biology in Science Fiction: Free Fiction on 20 Nov 2009 at 9:52 pm: 27
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